Monday, March 05, 2012

Along with the Italian economy in general Perugia has been taking its share of knocks.

However it is cleverly managed and under the ancient shell of the central part it is (like the food store above, one of many boutiques) surprisingly modern. Its infrastructure is among the best in Italy and it would beat that of many cities in the US.

Perugia has an excellent rail link to the rest of Italy with frequent trains, a city bus service that goes where you’d imagine no bus could go, an automated light rail system that heads up the side of the massif, and an expanding amount of public parking in multi-floor facilities.

Perugia already has a long-haul escalator at the south end of the massif, and it will have another long-haul escalator in its future from the parking facility opposite Meredith’s house to the top of the hill. Mobile phone coverage, never easy to install in ancient cities, has long offered generally good service throughout.

Now free open wireless connectivity to the internet throughout the city is announced and it should be fully operational within three months.

The Italian city of Perugia will get free Wi-Fi by June, in time for its annual Umbria Jazz festival. CentralCom and a temporary group of companies including Tiscali and Umbra Control won a contract to build a network of Wi-FI hotspots, starting with the municipalities of Perugia and Terni.

The project, funded by the Region of Umbria for a total of EUR 150.000, could be extended to cities in Umbria with subsequent funding. Internet access will be free of charge for two hours a day, and within institutional sites, with no time limits. Payment profiles will also be available without limitation of time/volume.

The US seems seem to have the edge over most of Europe in free hotspots. They are in almost all the fast-food stores and many public buildings. The US also has something that is generally illegal in Europe: many personal domestic hifi networks which are left open (sometimes unwittingly but usually with intent) which anyone adjacent may use.

But citywide wifi is not yet widespread in either Europe or the US, and where Perugia goes now, hopefully all cities will go next.

Such programs in the wide economic sense (I’m no economist) makes economic sense, as they may be considered the basic economic infrastructure. The effect will take sometime, as the people start using it widely and the infrastructure becomes seamless. Wifi has intrinsic geolocation capability and therefore it helps in crime (solving).

Two hours a day of free entertainment is good news for anyone!

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.—Oscar Wilde

I guess everyone is waiting to see what happens next. Point is though, the longer the wait the less the interest given the American public’s inability to retain any thought beyond a thirty second sound bite. Face it the vast majority of the populous, if they cared at all, have forgotten who AK is and could care less with the talk of Syria Iran and the election. I suppose some people in Seattle will buy the book eventually (If it ever comes out I’m sure the family will buy a copy) but there is no way the book sales will recoup the million or so bucks put out. Anyway that’s not the point, only by her being extricated will this story reemerge in the US psyche. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later but not until the election is over after November, because if it did the GOP would use it as a political football. I’m disgusted by the way at some people who think American Law (Double Indemnity) works world wide which just underscores the ignorance of some of AK’s supporters. So we wait.

I think it will be more interesting to watch what happens with the allied trials: the two upcoming trials of the Sollecito family and (the trial of) the Knox and Mellas. They will set the mood and will be the most potent indicator of the shape of things to come. Anyway, these two cases may also drag on years (I must be wrong; but certainly their lawyers will see that the cases drag on for months; it is in their best interests).

Forget about extradition of AK; American extradition treaties are always assymmetrical and in case of any ambiguity, the American judge will have the final say.

It’s perhaps helpful to repeat what most of us know. Knox is a serial accuser…

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